5 Tips On How To Score A Fulfilling Job That Aligns With Your Purpose

You’re dissatisfied with your job, you feel overworked and overloaded, and you’re struggling to maintain balance between your responsibilities and your passions.

You’re not alone. The majority of workers aren’t happy with their jobs, and the numbers aren’t getting any better. You aren’t suddenly discovering new meaning in your work, nor are you magically producing job satisfaction out of mid-air.

You stay in your meaningless, stress-filled job because you believe you have to. Your pressures and responsibilities don’t allow you the freedom to hit the open road and live a life of blissful nomad-ism. After all, where would you be without your health insurance, 401(k), or sick leave?

A glut of information is out there about the new entrepreneur who leaves the corporate world to start a passion-based business. Whether it’s a retail tee shirt company backing a cause, or a small business consulting firm helping companies improve their social media presence. These are wonderful success stories, and it’s worth paying some attention to the possibility that you, too, can carve your own path.

However, starting a business isn’t for everyone. Some people enjoy, even thrive in a corporate environment where opportunity exists for career growth, skills development, and where they can contribute to large-scale projects and initiatives with global reach. Breaking away from this structure isn’t even on their radar.

So how can you; the dedicated, lifelong employee, gain that same level of passion that the new entrepreneur feels? How can you learn to find meaning in your work amidst the chaos and noise of other peoples’ agendas? How can you become one of the few who are not only satisfied with their job, but also flourish and bloom within it?

I will show you just how to do that with these 5 simple tips.

1. Forget about building your resumé

Warren Buffett once said that taking a job only because it will look good on your resumé is like saving up sex for when you’re 70.

Witticism aside, he’s right. Why would you continually do things you don’t enjoy for the sole purpose of someday, maybe doing something you like?

All too often, people think that taking a job for the experience is a rite of passage, just like a musician paying her dues before she gets the big break.

It’s nonsense.

Instead, take an inward-facing approach when assessing a new job opportunity or re-evaluating your current job. Ask these critical questions:

Do I believe in this work?

Am I motivated to learn more?

Does this company’s mission align with my own?

If you’re struggling to find meaning in your job or are dissatisfied with your career direction, start by looking at yourself first. Ask questions that get to the root of why you might feel stuck. Don’t be afraid to make a change, even if that means a less “impressive” resumé.

2. Hone in on what lights you up

You can, however, use your resumé as a tool to figure out some ways you can break out of the dissatisfaction cycle.

Look back at all of your previous work experiences and note times when you were:

Once you have a “Do more of” list that suits you, further refine it by looking at each of those experiences and responsibilities through the following filters:

Was I truly happy when I worked on this?

Did this work feel meaningful to me?

Some of your experiences might end up in the middle; somewhat happy, marginally meaningful. That’s okay. The point is to enable you to understand the kind of work that lights you up; work you can rally behind and work that feels right.

You may need to look beyond the job description to answer these questions. Intangibles like values alignment and corporate culture also matter, and they may help you determine what kinds of jobs and environments best fit you.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.” – Steve Jobs

3. Define what you really want

Sometimes your experiences won’t shed much light on what matters to you the most. You may have followed the well-worn path of taking job after job based on how good they’d look on your resumé, and your list from above is full of experiences that left you unfulfilled, bored, and distracted.

At this point, you’ll need to dig deep to find answers. Play a little “what if” game:

What if money weren’t an issue? If I could do anything, what would I choose to do?

What if I could find work that fits my unique talents and strengths? Could I create a job description that captures them perfectly?

What if someone right now is doing exactly what I want to do? Who are they? Can I find them and talk to them?

By answering these questions, you’ll have a great chance of solidifying what you really want out of your job and your career. You can then take this new found awareness and apply it to your current situation. Whether you’re job hunting, evaluating a job offer, or trying to find ways to inject more meaning into your current role.

4. Get used to discomfort

Change happens at the intersection of discomfort and intention. It may be uncomfortable to become an active participant in your own life and make difficult choices that others may not agree with, but what’s the alternative? Do you really want to wait for a chance; a possibility you may find fulfillment somewhere out there?

Take a step back and look objectively at your life. Have you been reacting to what’s placed in front of you, or are you strategically directing the actions you take?

If you’re part of the unfulfilled and dissatisfied majority, think hard about this. Carefully examine how you categorized each of your work experiences, and pay particular attention to the themes and patterns you saw. Have you been living a predominantly passionate and challenged life? Or has yours been more unfulfilled and resistant?

“I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.” – Stephen Covey

5. Take ownership of your choices

It’s easy to get stuck on the career roller coaster. You’re caught between what other people think is best for you and what you really want to accomplish. Often, you choose the path of least resistance because you’re tired of working so hard to defend your beliefs.

Your choices are yours alone, so own them. You have the power to direct the course of your life by figuring out what you truly want and devising a strategy to take you there.

Decide that you no longer wish to settle for meaningless work. Actively design a working life that aligns your purpose with your paycheck. Become someone others look up to as a model of career fulfillment.

Are you ready to be that person or will you keep waiting for your big break? The choice is yours to make.

What tips would you add to this list that have helped you find what path was right for you?

Scott L. Sind is on a mission is to help burned-out employees and business owners build a life that enables them to do meaningful, rewarding work they truly love. He's the author of ActivateThought.com, where he writes about leadership, success, creativity, and professional development. Get his free Cheat Sheet for Building a Powerful Support Network for quick tips on expanding your influence.

33 Comments

Love that this article draws attention to the importance of being brutally honest with yourself about values and priorities. For many people, this is unconscious. Many people are out of touch with why they think and feel as they do, and how to link this back to behavior patterns. Living authentically is about having the courage to clarify, explore and act based on what you love and a deeper sense of purpose. This is not obvious for everyone. Raising self – awareness is very useful and can be done in a variety of ways.

Great process for figuring out what matters. What matters most to me is how much money they pay me.

I’ve created the ideal situation of independence and corporate for me. I’m a company of one I work on a project basis, which are usually 6 months. If things suck at one gig, I know its only 6 months.

Getting to this place happened by accident rather than by deliberate thought.

The bottom line for me though is the money. There is nothing quite like seeing an offer in writing for an insane amount of money that makes you sick. Getting that first pay and seeing it in the bank, yeah, that’s what give me my thrills.

The corporate world can indeed be incredibly fascinating! It has taught me sooo much and I am forever grateful for that. But you’re right, it’s easy to get a little lost in it all and it’s good advice to stay on your toes and watch out for yourself and your happiness along the way. Good stuff, Scott!

I wish I would have thought about my career choices in this way many years ago, Scott. I’m going to try actually writing a job description that captures my strengths and talents and see where that takes me! 🙂

Great post Scott – I especially agree with number 5 – it wasn’t until I really took ownership of my choices and realised that I had the power myself to change the situation, rather than waiting for others, that I took the leap and left my corporate role for a more portfolio career. Even if it’s between a rock and a hard place, there’s still a choice! Thanks, Ellen

Thanks Ellen! For me that’s the big one as well. I decided that if I failed, at least it wouldn’t have been because I didn’t try. We all have choices, but it’s the ones we don’t take that haunt us the most.

Great article Scott. Like Cherryl (above) I too wish I’d had this perspective earlier in my career. Do you think there’s a generational shift towards aligning your paycheck with your purpose? That certainly appears to be my observation.

Hi Helen! Yes, I definitely see a shift, especially with the Millennials. There’s more emphasis these days on portfolio careers rather than single-track careers. And with more and more people staying in jobs on average of 3 years, purpose and passion have become core values for job satisfaction.

I think you nailed. Defining what you want and going after it with tenacity are the keys to getting what you want, but you MUST have a clear vision on what you are doing now and what you plan to do. I think it is crazy that people get jobs just so that it can look good on their resume, you must find work that you believe in a can get the most from the experience. When you are motivated in your work, you learn and do more than you ever thought you would. This would shoot you to the top faster. You are right, you have the power to take control of your choices and actions, so align what you love to do with your paycheck.

Thanks Lawrence! I completely agree that you must have a clear vision. That’s where it all starts. Unforunately some of us have a difficult time aligning our actions and choices to our vision, which then bogs us down under the consequences of sub-optial decisions.

I like what you said about finding work that you believe can give you a valuable experience—that’s another part of a great career strategy 🙂

Hey Scott! Nice post. I like your #5: I hear lot’s of people saying that they don’t have the choice. The truth is, once we realize it, we always have a choice. And taking 100% responsibility for our choices is the first move towards success. You ask us for another tip. Tip #6: Take action NOW. Make a list of your dream jobs and start acting 🙂

Hi, Scott, what a wonderfully written and inspiring article! If only I’d gotten this advice when I just got out of college! How life would’ve turned out differently. I hope that your article gets disseminated widely and as many people as possible can read and benefit from your sage advice!

Thank you Cherryl! I wish I had this advice too way back when! It’s funny how easily we resign ourselves to the “easy” path because we don’t really know how to do anything else. I do hope that this inspires at least one person to jump out of their comfort zone and design a working life they love.

When I graduated from a top MBA program in 2012, the anxiety and fear of the future was palpable on campus.

Most people had taken on massive debt burdens, to finance their “gamble” of improving their career prospects with another piece of paper. The MBA degree.

I’d say 95% of them were completely bought in to the idea of having as many “gold stars” on their resumes as humanly possible. They worked themselves to the bone to land the best internships, get the highest grades and pretend to be actively involved in as many on-campus clubs and associations. I saw through the noise, as I knew my path would be different.

I see it all about skill building, and finding that unique intersection of what turns you on as a person, with what other people value enough to pay for.

Is it an overnight process? HELL NO. Tons of trial and error, periods of self doubt and wondering if you made the right decision.

But, when the wins inevitably come, as they have for me, the struggle you’ve gone through makes it that much sweeter.

Mike you nailed it here. I, too, recently got my MBA from a top program, but for very personal reasons, the least of which was the degree itself. Many others in my cohort, though, were there for the piece of paper only, and so they could add the letters to their business cards.

I gave up prestige a long time ago. Yes, I’ve made bad decisions when it’s come to my work, taken the wrong jobs for the wrong reasons. But you’re absolutely right when you say that when the wins do come, the struggles make them so much sweeter.

I applaud you on the path you’ve chosen—you have a spirit and fortitude that many don’t, and those will see you a long way 🙂

Very nice post Scott. Another major imagined hurdle for not doing it is i feel afraid of the thought “What if i get bored after some days” , what do i do then! Won’t i loose the kind of stability (though boring) ….These are the kind of limiting belief(s) that hold me back.
it would be great if you can comment about this kind of fears.

Hi Sameer, thanks for the comment! As to the fear of getting bored, well…usually when we feel bored it’s because we’ve reached a plateau and aren’t challenged anymore by the work. I’d suggest that the best way to beat boredom is to consistently strive for new heights, keep challenging yourself, and do things that are just outside of your comfort zone. That may mean a new job or career, but it could also mean going freelance, starting a business, or if you don’t have the enterpreneurial spirit, moving into an industry you have no experience in and “starting over.”

Boredom is just a mental state, and we have full control over how we react to it. I hope this helps!

Thanks Ashley! When I interviewed people, I rarely discussed their resume. I wanted to know what made the candidates tick, what lit them up, to get a sense of who they were, their likes and dislikes, etc. Most of the time the candidate with the “strongest” resume (i.e. filled with keywords and fluffy job titles) bombed these conversational moments. Not saying there’s scientific proof of anything, just my observations 😉

“There’s no list of computer-generated questions that will attract a quality salesperson to a business”

Sales is about human interaction.

The only way you’ll ever know a candidate’s ability to influence is by meeting them in person. The moment you try and screen out quality candidates that come highly recommended, with genuine references, you’re screwed!

Fifteen minutes with a salesperson will tell you more than 6 hours of recruiter/internet research.

The treatment I received from this company made me feel like a robot. It was if they were asking the following:

“Can you comply with blunt orders because our private equity firm needs to make money?”
Why are you challenging my emails? Just be a robot and follow orders.

The moment a salesperson gets a sniff that you only care about how much money they can make you, you’re up sh*t creek without a paddle as we like to say in Australia, mate.

Whether we like it or not salespeople want to be treated like human beings – just like everyone else. We’re searching for a human connection and too much focus on “NUMBERS, NUMBERS, NUMBERS” shows a lack of understanding when it comes to the science of achievement.

Obviously, salespeople care about making money, but just looking at spreadsheets all day with revenue numbers won’t tell you the whole story. Revenue is affected by:

– The culture
– The other sales members
– The product or service being sold
– Perception of the company from the outside
– Perception of the company on social media
– The way staff treat their customers
– The values of the organization
– How the company gives back to the community outside of just “PROFIT, PROFIT, PROFIT”

The simple fact is that if you don’t understand the non-revenue factors of a business like people, you shouldn’t be in sales – you should be counting widgets in a factory and filling out a card that says “Successfully shipped to customer, next order please.”

Discrimination is an ugly business – especially in sales.

What this Sales Director showed me was just how naive people can be when they discriminate. Your business could be missing out on amazing sales talent just because you’re using binary decision-making skills to find talent.

Quick story:

The best salesperson I ever hired worked for one of my companies. He came to the interview wearing a stained red jumper, old faded cargo pants, a pair of tradesman boots and a ciggie in his mouth. He was currently working for a charity cold-calling people and asking them for money.

He was homeless and living in his car – which I later found out. After four weeks working for us, he made zero sales. We went down to fire him one Friday afternoon and he’d gone home early. We decided to do it on Monday instead.

On Monday morning I went to the Snake Pit (the name of the sales room at the time) to find him. To my surprise, I interrupted him writing his sales on the whiteboard which he’d been saving until all the contracts were signed. In 4 weeks he’d outsold the entire sales team!!!

He went on to be the top-performer working only a few hours per day because of his incredible sales skill. Later on, I found out this man used to be worth more than $100M and he went on to be a friend, mentor, top salesperson and the best guy I’ve ever met in sales.

On face value, he looked like a bum and was unimpressive. My immaturity at the time (and youth) nearly made me miss the best candidate I was ever going to find.

Discrimination and pigeon-holing people is a nasty business. The cost of missed opportunity by being a total idiot and ignoring people based on surface level nonsense is a game you don’t want to play.

Algorithms and surveys can’t determine sales talent – people do that!

The bigger the ego, the bigger the problem later on.

I remember a sales guy I worked with who was nicknamed “The Maverick.”

He had the biggest ego you could ever imagine and at the start, it was a little funny. As time went on, his ego got even more out of control.

He was hitting on the female staff, upsetting the other salespeople, trying to steal sales, undermining management for his own selfish interests and doing anything he could to look good.

An out of control ego at the start should be a massive red flag. It only gets worse later on. Selfish pursuits of power and success always end in tears – even in sales. High-performing salespeople are leaders in the making and want to duplicate their qualities in the up and coming sales staff.

That doesn’t mean confidence should be ignored.

Yes, a heavily inflated ego is a problem in sales but lack of confidence is too. You want some level of confidence so that when you put a newly hired salesperson into the field, they have the guts, belief in themselves and determination to succeed.

You can’t spoon-feed a salesperson; they need the ability to have control of their destiny. Control takes confidence to wake up every day and execute on an outcome.

Order takers vs. salespeople.

I want to dispel a myth: there’s nothing wrong with order takers. The field of sales often put down people who work in big companies and take orders.

There’s a need for these people though in most businesses. These individuals can follow orders, sell off a script, are often cheaper to hire and can use the brand of the company to sell.

Salespeople, on the other hand, can use rapport and human interaction to make a potential customer feel something about a product or service. This feeling can then be translated into real business and a repeat customer down the line.

Neither the salesperson or the order taker are evil people; they just have different skills and perform a different function. I’ve even seen order takers be trained into salespeople later on if they have the growth mindset to believe they can crossover to the dark side.

A word on execution.

There’s plenty of great salespeople out there but what separates the good from the incredible (the same goes for entrepreneurs) is execution. We can all get a client excited for a few brief minutes but translating that into revenue for the business and an ongoing relationship is much harder.

Hiring for execution as well as sales ability is an important combination. When the skill of execution is lacking, you’ll often have salespeople that fall into the trap of making big promises and expecting “The Rest Of The Business” to deliver on these promises.

This lack of ownership creates lots of sales business and a poor customer experience which does more damage. The best way to find salespeople who can sell and execute is to understand how they manage their day – in other words, can they demonstrate the skill of productivity.

An easy hack I use is to take a look at their diary for the last few weeks. Just because they are back-to-back with meetings, does not mean they are productive. Most sales meetings are unproductive and don’t lead to any tangible business outcomes.

I look for blank space in diaries, and salespeople that time-box slots in their diary for thinking and empty space. These rare gems do less, have time to see shifts in the market and can see the broader vision of the business.

A gun salesperson can say NO.

Not all business is good business. Some sales opportunities cost more than they bring back to the company in value.

A high-performing salesperson can focus on good business and say no to business too. A weak salesperson says yes to every sales opportunity which ultimately means they’ll drown themselves in unproductive work later on.

No business can be all things, to all customers.

Avoid being deceived by looks.

Any salesperson can buy a nice suit, roll up in a luxury car, drink a cafe latte and talk a big game. Don’t let looks cloud your judgment.

“Looks can be faked; human nature and emotional intelligence cannot be. Phenomenal salespeople understand these two traits like the back of their hand”

Empathy and compassion wins every time in sales.

Understanding how a potential salesperson thinks is about getting inside their head. You can do this through the use of deliberate questions that focus on whether they can be empathetic and compassionate.

Given that salespeople all deal with humans, the ability to be aware of a person’s feelings will be the guiding skill they need to influence an individual to make a decision.

“People buy off feelings and so you want your salespeople to be experts at feeling and understanding human emotion”

All sales solutions solve a problem and with any challenge comes emotion. If you solve a problem as a salesperson but don’t understand the emotion, you’ll probably lose the deal. The feelings and emotions attached to the problem drive the outcome more than the problem itself.

“Again, machines can solve problems; humans solve the emotions and feelings that come bundled with the problem”

– Industry changes quickly so a fixed mindset will ignore these changes
– Salespeople that know everything hold business back
– The problem a salesperson can solve is often missed if they’re not open-minded enough to see it
– The problem can be solved using the wrong solution if the salesperson has a fixed mindset

Experience can sometimes be the worst attribute.

Some of the worst candidates I’ve ever interviewed come with five or more years’ experience. This is because experience can often lead a salesperson to adopt a fixed mindset. Too much experience can cause a candidate to want to do things the way they’ve always been done.

Taking someone who’s got no experience can be a blessing in disguise.

A famous example of this is the founders of Airbnb. They had no experience in the hotel industry which is how they were naive enough and bold enough to use skills from other industries like tech to completely rethink the industry.

Maybe the salespeople you’re hiring with years of experience are the problem.

The answer is there is no perfect sales candidate.

I know what you’re thinking: “Damn it Tim! Why do you keep speaking so much truth?”

Just like there is no easy way to predict which startup will become the next billion-dollar unicorn -there are so many factors to consider and sometimes you’ve got to take a chance and stop thinking you know it all.

None of us have all the answers and your predisposed bias of the past is holding you back from hiring perfectly good candidates.

If you want to increase your productivity and learn some more valuable life hacks, then join my private mailing list on timdenning.net

15 Things To Do When You Hit A Major Career Crisis And Are Forced To Change Career.

When your career is in the dumps, the typical advice is, “Don’t worry and stay positive.”

While this idea looks nice on paper it’s not going to do much when you have bills to pay, mouths to feed and your life’s purpose seems partly lost.

There are common traps that people in this situation fall into. They are:

– Depending on someone else to find them their next career
– Thinking they can just work through it
– Pretending everything is okay when it’s not

Hitting a major career crisis is messed up. Standing still and hoping that everything will be okay will get you nowhere. You’re in control and you’re going to need all the energy you have to get through it.

Right now, my career is down the drain. Everything I have worked for has begun imploding through a series of unrelated events such as restructures, people moving on, lack of understanding, shifts in the market and a change in focus.

These are the 15 things I’ve learned to do in a career crisis:

1. Quit pointing the finger.

Blaming the company, senior leaders, the strategy or any other lame excuse won’t achieve anything. You’re in this career crisis mostly because of your own actions. In my case, I stayed in my current career too long because I was having fun and loved the people I was working with.

I knew it was time to move on six months ago and I ignored the warning signs – that’s a failure on my part right there. I had two choices: blame the company or pull my socks up and move on. I chose the latter. The blame game gets you nowhere. If you hate your current career, then leave.

It’s very tempting to blame the company and point the finger at people you work with who have failed you (in your eyes). The fantasy seems good but the reality is BS.

“Quit pointing the finger and accept what’s happening is your fault. Only you can change your career situation”

2. Get off the Titanic.

“Rose, we have to leave the ship or we will die in the freezing cold water!”

A career crisis that you know is forcing you to move on must be thought about like the Titanic. If your perception of reality is that the ship is sinking and there are leaky holes everywhere, then waiting around is going to force your ass into the freezing cold water.

Changing career takes a long time from the moment you make the decision – which is often delayed because of procrastination. If you know the ship is sinking – like I currently do – then get out of there faster than Jumping Jack Flash.

Grab your torch, grab your belonging’s, kiss your colleagues on the cheek and then run as fast as you can. Hanging around while the ship is sinking will only make your career crisis worse.

While I tell you this phenomenal advice, I didn’t follow it. Thank god I survived the shipwreck and can deliver this advice to you.

3. No one is going to save you – save yourself.

I somehow thought that a magic fairy was going to swoop in and save my ass because you know, I’m Tim Denning after all.

This was wishful thinking that screwed me even more.

No one is saving your ass. That career you’ve worked hard for may be in ruins and only you can fix it. In my situation, I found 90% of those around me only wanted to save themselves. No point dwelling on this fact it’s just the reality of these career situations.

Again, we can be bitter and pissed off or accept that it’s in our human nature to save ourselves first. Waiting around and hoping for a lifeline will push you further into despair.

“The moment you realize that you are responsible for everything that happens in your career is the moment everything changes”

4. The 10% that do want to help.

The good news: there will always be 10% of those around you who do want to help. You must do the following:

– Worship these kind people
– Show your gratitude every time (I literally do it in every email and phone call)
– Follow up with them
– Let them know you will be there for them when they need the same help

I’ve had some ripper colleagues bend over backwards to help me during this difficult time. I even had several customers, partners, accountants, friends and competitors (go figure!) chip in.

It’s this network of people that you should focus on. Every conversation I’ve had and every favor that’s been done has been met with a promise of returning the lifeline that has been given. I’ve told them my gratitude over and over, so they understand how important its been.

I’ve written customized emails and text messages to express my gratitude. NEVER TAKE THE 10% THAT WANT TO HELP YOU FOR GRANTED! These kind people owe you nothing. Remember that.

5. There’s always a turning point.

I experienced this back in 2011 when I left a company I started with my brother. It was a horrible time and I thought that because of all the success I’d had, I was entitled to assistance. I waited around hoping for someone to give me some magic career opportunity.

The phone never rang. I became more and more negative which pushed people further away. Thanks to a Tony Robbins audiotape, late one night I got up off my butt and went for a walk with this new audiotape playing on my 2009 iPod.

That night, I walked around my entire suburb for hours listening to Tony Robbins. I did every exercise he said including the deep breathing and shouting out loud. People in the streets thought I was off my head on drugs.

This one turning point changed everything. I decided that for the next few years I would eat dirt. I’d relearn the skill of sales; I’d become positive again; I’d embrace personal development and I’d change my diet to create energy.

I was so broke at the time that it took me two more years before I could save up enough money to attend a Tony Robbins event which helped me even more.

This career crisis became the foundation of all the success that followed.

6. Back to old success habits.

There were habits that made you successful before that you’ve stopped doing. What were they?

When my recent career crisis hit me like a brick in the face, I went back to my 2011 survival mode – only this time I was prepared.

“People saw me at work with my 2009 iPod which now looks like a relic out of Indiana Jones”

I’ve put the Tony Robbins tapes back in repeat mode. The tapes helped me before and they can help again. The same is true for you. You’ve had success habits before that have got you out of a rough patch. In times of crisis, using them again can be very helpful.

7. In a crisis, there is opportunity.

A career crisis can often be a brilliant opportunity in disguise. We get stuck with our habits and being comfortable. Having to deal with a career crisis can force you to take action and execute.

For example, I wrote down what I wanted going forward. That exercise caused an epiphany: I only want to work four days a week from now on. I decided I’m happy to sacrifice money for time so I can do what I love (writing these words for you).

Changes in company structures and people within a business may force you into a career crisis but it can also be filled with luscious blue sky. People moving around means that you could move up or even to an opportunity that is more aligned with your passion.

Don’t see a crisis as a bad thing; use it to propel your career forward.

This shift in thinking alone can change your work life entirely.

8. A career crisis could make all of your colleague’s negative.

This happened to me. There were lunchtime whinging sessions, random phone calls, emails – you name it. In one of the calls with my colleagues, things turned sour. I immediately hung up from the call. I then got SMS’s saying “Did you drop off the phone?”

My answer was “Yes and I will not be re-joining.” Their response was “We understand.”

I’m not putting up with any excess negativity. The burden of a career crisis is enough to deal with and stacking more negativity will weigh you down. The default human response is negativity so when a career crisis happens (especially one that affects your colleagues), you have to get disciplined.

Set some boundaries and avoid the negativity as much as humanly possible. You’ll piss people off (like I did) but it’s worth every bit of disgust your colleagues may have with you.

9. Options are like a cat with 9 lives.

In a career crisis, the best thing you can have is options. The moment my own career went into meltdown I rang every recruiter I knew. I pre-warned them months in advance. When my fate was set in stone, I sent them my resume and told them I was available.

I also asked them how I could assist them in return and offered my knowledge of social media as a bargaining chip. These recruiters give you options so that when you are faced with difficult decisions, you don’t have to accept a career opportunity that you don’t 100% want.

Having no options will force you to choose the easy way out which will leave you even more frustrated in the long run. A career crisis is a chance to do something new and the more prospects you have, the better it feels to assess each one.

10. Dust off your address book.

Metaphorically of course because none of us carry around little books with names and phone numbers anymore. Start ringing everyone you know and telling them that you are open to new career opportunities. Keep the tone positive and avoid talking down your current company.

Reconnect with literally anyone you know. The next opportunity could come from the strangest of places. One of the career prospects I’m assessing right now that is at the top of my list was referred to me by someone I met once who sent me a text, and who I can’t even remember meeting.

I’m not sure how they got my number or even knew I was looking. Frankly, I don’t even care. Your network can help during these moments of disaster but you have to put in the work and call people. Again, sitting around feeling sorry for yourself will get you nowhere.

11. Avoid coups.

They never work out well. Enough said.

12. Never expect immediate results.

From the moment you decide to change up your career, it’s probably going to take 3-6 months minimum. Patience is key. Nothing in your career that’s worth it will happen overnight.

I know I’m telling you to suck eggs but it’s advice you must hear. I’m sucking eggs right now as I give you the advice haha.

13. Focus on your health.

I spent $2000 on medical stuff last week. People think I’m nuts but during a career crisis, your energy is everything. To be able to put up with so much negativity, you’re going to require excess energy.

Right now, I’m eating all raw foods, skipping fancy dinners that could encourage me to lose track of my diet, and supplementing like my 104-year-old grandma used to.

“Energy during a career crisis is everything”

14. Maintain positive habits or begin them.

– Quit TV as it won’t help you
– Visit an Onsen or have a massage
– Exercise three times a week
– Drink plenty of water
– Sleep a minimum of 8 hours
– Listen to positive podcasts such (Tim Ferriss and Tony Robbins are good)

Your habits during a career crisis will help guide you back to the top again. This list above is what I’m focusing on every day currently and it helps a lot.

15. Don’t give up.

This whole career crisis is going to be filled with failure, rejection and a ton of negativity. Don’t let all this negative energy make you give up.

Your ultimate success in your career will come from this less than ideal situation later on. One day you’ll look back on this career crisis as a blessing in disguise. This crisis will set you on the right path and help you to re-evaluate everything.

Back your own boldness and put your fist in the air.
Charge through the almighty darkness with a smile.
Never. Ever. Give. Up.

If you want to increase your productivity and learn some more valuable life hacks, then join my private mailing list on timdenning.net

Extraordinary businesses are much more about evolution than revolution. Small daily insignificant improvements lead to staggering results over time. Companies such as Google, Uber, Nike and Amazon have not made only one move to amplify their greatness but a series of steps over time. These companies have created un-parallel success due to their belief that success is an inevitable byproduct of doing the little things right. No huge action or silver bullets, instead focusing on achieving legendary business and being better human beings.

The same concept applies, whether it be to companies, or individual performance. Improvements are identified, specific changes are required for the transition and then deliberate immersion until they are automatized.

Important clues hide in the stories of world-renowned creators. Researchers use the term “The Mundanity of Excellence” to describe what makes the best isn’t natural talent or luck but character and the application of a series of simple, specific and learnable methods.

Successful growth companies don’t roll the dice once. When you improve a little each day, eventually big things happen. Invest your energy into seeking the small improvements, small wins, one day at a time and when it happens, it lasts.

Below are 5 principles that when acted upon consistently can lead you to create sustainable results in your business:

1. Played the long game

Media and many within our communities, sensationalize authority figures as overnight success. It rarely exists. Success is captured by thousands of nights in the making, practicing day in and day out and taking countless steps. Bezos attributes Amazon’s success to playing the long game.

When you accept that the journey is not a linear line and you need to work your way there, you take incremental steps to play the long game. Amazon’s first step towards creating the everything store was to focus on selling one thing and one thing only – books. They built one specific product and a strong e-commerce system around it before expanding and diversifying.

2. Thought big, started small

Great companies gather evidence about their capabilities by firing small bullets before they launch a missile. They invest in data to validate where they are heading. They don’t start firing and hope they hit or miss.

When you look back at Google, Larry Page introduced Google Books when he bought a scanner and hooked it up in his office. He began scanning pages, timed it, ran numbers and realized it would be possible to bring book’s online.

Most creators started small. Look at Richard Branson, he started the Virgin Brand with a student magazine. Other examples include Facebook which was started at Harvard and Google started at Stanford with the objective of helping people find information efficiently. Throughout the growth of Google, the company has added more services, yet they continue to focus on one thing only, finding information as quickly as possible.

Amazon dominates different lines of business having little to do with its original undertaking of selling books. Jeff Bezos insists that putting customers first, invent and be patient has been his motto since the beginning.

“Look at things as they can be, not as they are.” – David J. Schwartz

3. Accepted failure as feedback

Failure is inevitable. Humans and business are imperfect. Failure is feedback and opportunity. Fail, but fail early before you invest more than you must or before you compromise your brand. Bezos was interviewed by his brother at Los Angeles’ Summit 2017 where he stated that at the age of 30 he recognized failure was okay but trying was not.

His level of self-awareness allowed him to tap into his courage and take a risk to start an online store. He attributed his success in business due to developing self-reliance and resourcefulness growing up on a ranch. Failure was part of the process, so he mastered that.

4. Found a gap in the market

Uber disrupted the global taxi industry by finding a gap in the market and fulfilled a very real role. Uber removed all the problems associated with taxi services in one fell swoop. They tapped into putting people first by beginning the customer experience through connection of an app to create a personal experience.

They adopted technology at the core and initially focused on raising brand awareness through sponsorship of relevant major events. They harnessed the crowd in the early days with the recommend a friend tactic. They capitalized on social media to the point where the brand became instantly familiar in people’s minds. Step by step, they disrupted the global taxi industry.

“We’ve grown up with internet. We’re able to see things and gaps in markets that others may not be able to.” – Nick D’Aloisio

5. Left a lasting Imprint in people’s minds

“Just do it” is imprinted in the minds of many as is the swoosh logo. In the early days of Nike, putting customers first was paramount. The Nike Moon shoes were a classic example of not only building great products but also highlighting the health benefits of wearing the jogging shoe. The audience wasn’t looking for better running shoes but a better way to get in shape.

Like the other companies identified, Nike has taken small steps over time to significantly impact millions of people. Their brand stands alone, yet they have adapted through upgraded designs, embraced new technologies moving from print to social media platforms and adapted to the needs of their audience.

They continue to hold on to their customer-centric messaging by staying true to their sense of purpose, emphasizing benefits of their products and reinforcing the message that they help their clients be better at what they love to do.

None of these companies sold products, they spread ideas and delivered the benefits that came with it. Over time, they built trust with customers by adding immense value. A style that will never out date.

Which one of these companies is your favorite one and why? Let us know in the comments below!

Time to Get Mushy: Why Emotions Will Help You Succeed at Work

We have always believed that we need to be smart, well-organized, hard-working and tough negotiators to be successful at work. However, has anyone told you to rely on your emotions for success? The answer is probably not since most people tend to believe emotions only get in the way.

However, it isscientifically proven today that the intelligence is only one puzzle piece in the picture of success: your intelligence and hard-working ethics will earn you a promotion at work or a salary increase only when combined with your high integrity, self-esteem, self-awareness, empathy, self-regulation and great social skills, or to sum up, emotional intelligence.

Emotional intelligence (EQ) is the ability to identify and effectively manage your own and other people’s emotions. Many academic studies over the past decades demonstrated the power of emotional intelligence, and it is now considered the core ingredient of personal and professional success.

EQ includes our self-awareness (knowing our own feelings), self-management (controlling our feelings), motivation, empathy (the skill of understanding other people’s emotions and reacting to them appropriately) and our social skills (negotiating the needs of others with your own and applying empathy).

These skills empower us to accurately assess our emotional triggers and abilities, control our emotional reactions, constructively resolve conflicts, set achievable goals and effectively manage relationships with other people. It’s not your IQ, but your EQ that will make your career skyrocket and your salary reach figures you only dreamt about. But how?

Emotional Fitness and Work Success

According to a research by the Carnegie Institute of Technology, we owe some 85% of our financial success to our people skills such as our ability to communicate, negotiate and act as leaders. In other words, they found that our emotional intelligence skills are highly related to our financial success.

The ability to stay calm and in control of your emotions in challenging situations is greatly valued in everyday life and in business as well. Are you able to keep your emotions under control when things don’t go your way? Can you take responsibility for your actions and predict other people’s actions most of the time? Can you apologize directly when you hurt someone’s feelings, no matter how uncomfortable you might feel? If your answer to these questions is yes, then you may be on a good road to become an exceptional leader.

How to Boost Your Emotional Fitness

Emotional fitness is a key to your career success. Being emotionally fit means that you are able to focus on constructive and creative tasks. It also represents the ability to accept negative feelings and stay in control of them. However, the same way we need regular exercise to stay physically fit, we need a certain practice to boost our emotional intelligence as well.

Use the 4 tips below to improve your EQ and keep emotionally fit:

1. Be Giving

Our personality and thereby our emotional intelligence involves two parts: identity (how we see ourselves) and reputation (how other people see us). Rewarding people tends to be seen as friendly, trusting and cooperative. Others also perceive them as unselfish, proactive and willing to share their knowledge and resources. Whether it is business or personal relationships, everyone likes to be around people who are supportive, eager to help, easy to get along with and can be trusted.

Nobel Prize winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman found that people would rather do business with a person they like and trust than someone they don’t, even though the other person is offering a better product and a lower price.

Both, seeing yourself and being seen as a rewarding, valuable person by others has a power to boost your confidence, improve your communication and negotiation skills and help you climb the corporate ladder successfully.

“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

2. Visualization

A great way to get promoted at work is to show you do not get upset easily and prove you can stay composed when not everything goes according to plan. Try to come up with different imaginary scenarios requiring you to use your EQ skills and work out the possible solutions to them.

For instance, imagine that you are a company manager that needs to terminate a certain number of employees. Stay focused on your emotions and try to apply the best emotional fitness skills to solve this unpleasant situation. How do you react?

Practicing your EQ skills this way will increase your self-esteem, help you gain control over your emotions and boost your social skills. There is even a game where you can learn and practice your people skills.

3. Empathy

Practice your empathy whenever you get a chance. Listen to people actively, putting prejudices and interpretations aside. Try to take up a contrary position in everyday communication especially when dealing with conflicts.

For example, if you think that your teammate is being unreasonable, try defending their position in your head. How do things look from their perspective?Understanding how other people feel is key to having empathy and a sure road to sustainable success.

“Empathy is seeing with the eyes of another, listening with the ears of another and feeling with the heart of another.” – Alfred Adler

4. Remember to Be Grateful

If you ask emotionally fit people about the things they are grateful for, they will undoubtedly be able to come up with a long list. Practice a gratitude exercise every morning. After you get up, write down a list of things you are grateful for. This will keep you positive and motivated throughout the day.

You could also count your blessings before you go to sleep. Remember your subconscious mind believes whatever you tell it, so imprinting the positive thoughts into your subconscious is a great way to boost your confidence, self-awareness, motivation and happiness. Our brain cannot store all the information we receive, butyou can be in control of what your brain stores. Keep that in mind.

The experience and studies proved that individuals with highly developed emotional intelligence tend to be more successful in all areas of life, personal and business-wise. Nurturing your emotional fitness, you will have the power to accomplish your goals, improve your career and build up your relationships. In short, this will help you to lead a happy and successful life.

How do you use your emotional intelligence on a daily basis? Share with us some of your tips!

Trying to Build Charisma? Pay Attention to How You Speak

Have you ever listened to yourself talking and said how on earth do I sound that terrible? Most of us don`t realize they have voice issues until we accidentally listen to our voice or seek professional help. But the truth is, 38 percent of your charisma comes from the way you talk.(more…)

Marwan Jamal is a fitness and health blogger at healthline.com. He’s a great fan of the gym and a healthy diet. He follows the trends in fitness, gym, and healthy life and loves to share his knowledge through useful and informative articles.

33 Comments

Love that this article draws attention to the importance of being brutally honest with yourself about values and priorities. For many people, this is unconscious. Many people are out of touch with why they think and feel as they do, and how to link this back to behavior patterns. Living authentically is about having the courage to clarify, explore and act based on what you love and a deeper sense of purpose. This is not obvious for everyone. Raising self – awareness is very useful and can be done in a variety of ways.

Great process for figuring out what matters. What matters most to me is how much money they pay me.

I’ve created the ideal situation of independence and corporate for me. I’m a company of one I work on a project basis, which are usually 6 months. If things suck at one gig, I know its only 6 months.

Getting to this place happened by accident rather than by deliberate thought.

The bottom line for me though is the money. There is nothing quite like seeing an offer in writing for an insane amount of money that makes you sick. Getting that first pay and seeing it in the bank, yeah, that’s what give me my thrills.

The corporate world can indeed be incredibly fascinating! It has taught me sooo much and I am forever grateful for that. But you’re right, it’s easy to get a little lost in it all and it’s good advice to stay on your toes and watch out for yourself and your happiness along the way. Good stuff, Scott!

I wish I would have thought about my career choices in this way many years ago, Scott. I’m going to try actually writing a job description that captures my strengths and talents and see where that takes me! 🙂

Great post Scott – I especially agree with number 5 – it wasn’t until I really took ownership of my choices and realised that I had the power myself to change the situation, rather than waiting for others, that I took the leap and left my corporate role for a more portfolio career. Even if it’s between a rock and a hard place, there’s still a choice! Thanks, Ellen

Thanks Ellen! For me that’s the big one as well. I decided that if I failed, at least it wouldn’t have been because I didn’t try. We all have choices, but it’s the ones we don’t take that haunt us the most.

Great article Scott. Like Cherryl (above) I too wish I’d had this perspective earlier in my career. Do you think there’s a generational shift towards aligning your paycheck with your purpose? That certainly appears to be my observation.

Hi Helen! Yes, I definitely see a shift, especially with the Millennials. There’s more emphasis these days on portfolio careers rather than single-track careers. And with more and more people staying in jobs on average of 3 years, purpose and passion have become core values for job satisfaction.

I think you nailed. Defining what you want and going after it with tenacity are the keys to getting what you want, but you MUST have a clear vision on what you are doing now and what you plan to do. I think it is crazy that people get jobs just so that it can look good on their resume, you must find work that you believe in a can get the most from the experience. When you are motivated in your work, you learn and do more than you ever thought you would. This would shoot you to the top faster. You are right, you have the power to take control of your choices and actions, so align what you love to do with your paycheck.

Thanks Lawrence! I completely agree that you must have a clear vision. That’s where it all starts. Unforunately some of us have a difficult time aligning our actions and choices to our vision, which then bogs us down under the consequences of sub-optial decisions.

I like what you said about finding work that you believe can give you a valuable experience—that’s another part of a great career strategy 🙂

Hey Scott! Nice post. I like your #5: I hear lot’s of people saying that they don’t have the choice. The truth is, once we realize it, we always have a choice. And taking 100% responsibility for our choices is the first move towards success. You ask us for another tip. Tip #6: Take action NOW. Make a list of your dream jobs and start acting 🙂

Hi, Scott, what a wonderfully written and inspiring article! If only I’d gotten this advice when I just got out of college! How life would’ve turned out differently. I hope that your article gets disseminated widely and as many people as possible can read and benefit from your sage advice!

Thank you Cherryl! I wish I had this advice too way back when! It’s funny how easily we resign ourselves to the “easy” path because we don’t really know how to do anything else. I do hope that this inspires at least one person to jump out of their comfort zone and design a working life they love.

When I graduated from a top MBA program in 2012, the anxiety and fear of the future was palpable on campus.

Most people had taken on massive debt burdens, to finance their “gamble” of improving their career prospects with another piece of paper. The MBA degree.

I’d say 95% of them were completely bought in to the idea of having as many “gold stars” on their resumes as humanly possible. They worked themselves to the bone to land the best internships, get the highest grades and pretend to be actively involved in as many on-campus clubs and associations. I saw through the noise, as I knew my path would be different.

I see it all about skill building, and finding that unique intersection of what turns you on as a person, with what other people value enough to pay for.

Is it an overnight process? HELL NO. Tons of trial and error, periods of self doubt and wondering if you made the right decision.

But, when the wins inevitably come, as they have for me, the struggle you’ve gone through makes it that much sweeter.

Mike you nailed it here. I, too, recently got my MBA from a top program, but for very personal reasons, the least of which was the degree itself. Many others in my cohort, though, were there for the piece of paper only, and so they could add the letters to their business cards.

I gave up prestige a long time ago. Yes, I’ve made bad decisions when it’s come to my work, taken the wrong jobs for the wrong reasons. But you’re absolutely right when you say that when the wins do come, the struggles make them so much sweeter.

I applaud you on the path you’ve chosen—you have a spirit and fortitude that many don’t, and those will see you a long way 🙂

Very nice post Scott. Another major imagined hurdle for not doing it is i feel afraid of the thought “What if i get bored after some days” , what do i do then! Won’t i loose the kind of stability (though boring) ….These are the kind of limiting belief(s) that hold me back.
it would be great if you can comment about this kind of fears.

Hi Sameer, thanks for the comment! As to the fear of getting bored, well…usually when we feel bored it’s because we’ve reached a plateau and aren’t challenged anymore by the work. I’d suggest that the best way to beat boredom is to consistently strive for new heights, keep challenging yourself, and do things that are just outside of your comfort zone. That may mean a new job or career, but it could also mean going freelance, starting a business, or if you don’t have the enterpreneurial spirit, moving into an industry you have no experience in and “starting over.”

Boredom is just a mental state, and we have full control over how we react to it. I hope this helps!

Thanks Ashley! When I interviewed people, I rarely discussed their resume. I wanted to know what made the candidates tick, what lit them up, to get a sense of who they were, their likes and dislikes, etc. Most of the time the candidate with the “strongest” resume (i.e. filled with keywords and fluffy job titles) bombed these conversational moments. Not saying there’s scientific proof of anything, just my observations 😉

“There’s no list of computer-generated questions that will attract a quality salesperson to a business”

Sales is about human interaction.

The only way you’ll ever know a candidate’s ability to influence is by meeting them in person. The moment you try and screen out quality candidates that come highly recommended, with genuine references, you’re screwed!

Fifteen minutes with a salesperson will tell you more than 6 hours of recruiter/internet research.

The treatment I received from this company made me feel like a robot. It was if they were asking the following:

“Can you comply with blunt orders because our private equity firm needs to make money?”
Why are you challenging my emails? Just be a robot and follow orders.

The moment a salesperson gets a sniff that you only care about how much money they can make you, you’re up sh*t creek without a paddle as we like to say in Australia, mate.

Whether we like it or not salespeople want to be treated like human beings – just like everyone else. We’re searching for a human connection and too much focus on “NUMBERS, NUMBERS, NUMBERS” shows a lack of understanding when it comes to the science of achievement.

Obviously, salespeople care about making money, but just looking at spreadsheets all day with revenue numbers won’t tell you the whole story. Revenue is affected by:

– The culture
– The other sales members
– The product or service being sold
– Perception of the company from the outside
– Perception of the company on social media
– The way staff treat their customers
– The values of the organization
– How the company gives back to the community outside of just “PROFIT, PROFIT, PROFIT”

The simple fact is that if you don’t understand the non-revenue factors of a business like people, you shouldn’t be in sales – you should be counting widgets in a factory and filling out a card that says “Successfully shipped to customer, next order please.”

Discrimination is an ugly business – especially in sales.

What this Sales Director showed me was just how naive people can be when they discriminate. Your business could be missing out on amazing sales talent just because you’re using binary decision-making skills to find talent.

Quick story:

The best salesperson I ever hired worked for one of my companies. He came to the interview wearing a stained red jumper, old faded cargo pants, a pair of tradesman boots and a ciggie in his mouth. He was currently working for a charity cold-calling people and asking them for money.

He was homeless and living in his car – which I later found out. After four weeks working for us, he made zero sales. We went down to fire him one Friday afternoon and he’d gone home early. We decided to do it on Monday instead.

On Monday morning I went to the Snake Pit (the name of the sales room at the time) to find him. To my surprise, I interrupted him writing his sales on the whiteboard which he’d been saving until all the contracts were signed. In 4 weeks he’d outsold the entire sales team!!!

He went on to be the top-performer working only a few hours per day because of his incredible sales skill. Later on, I found out this man used to be worth more than $100M and he went on to be a friend, mentor, top salesperson and the best guy I’ve ever met in sales.

On face value, he looked like a bum and was unimpressive. My immaturity at the time (and youth) nearly made me miss the best candidate I was ever going to find.

Discrimination and pigeon-holing people is a nasty business. The cost of missed opportunity by being a total idiot and ignoring people based on surface level nonsense is a game you don’t want to play.

Algorithms and surveys can’t determine sales talent – people do that!

The bigger the ego, the bigger the problem later on.

I remember a sales guy I worked with who was nicknamed “The Maverick.”

He had the biggest ego you could ever imagine and at the start, it was a little funny. As time went on, his ego got even more out of control.

He was hitting on the female staff, upsetting the other salespeople, trying to steal sales, undermining management for his own selfish interests and doing anything he could to look good.

An out of control ego at the start should be a massive red flag. It only gets worse later on. Selfish pursuits of power and success always end in tears – even in sales. High-performing salespeople are leaders in the making and want to duplicate their qualities in the up and coming sales staff.

That doesn’t mean confidence should be ignored.

Yes, a heavily inflated ego is a problem in sales but lack of confidence is too. You want some level of confidence so that when you put a newly hired salesperson into the field, they have the guts, belief in themselves and determination to succeed.

You can’t spoon-feed a salesperson; they need the ability to have control of their destiny. Control takes confidence to wake up every day and execute on an outcome.

Order takers vs. salespeople.

I want to dispel a myth: there’s nothing wrong with order takers. The field of sales often put down people who work in big companies and take orders.

There’s a need for these people though in most businesses. These individuals can follow orders, sell off a script, are often cheaper to hire and can use the brand of the company to sell.

Salespeople, on the other hand, can use rapport and human interaction to make a potential customer feel something about a product or service. This feeling can then be translated into real business and a repeat customer down the line.

Neither the salesperson or the order taker are evil people; they just have different skills and perform a different function. I’ve even seen order takers be trained into salespeople later on if they have the growth mindset to believe they can crossover to the dark side.

A word on execution.

There’s plenty of great salespeople out there but what separates the good from the incredible (the same goes for entrepreneurs) is execution. We can all get a client excited for a few brief minutes but translating that into revenue for the business and an ongoing relationship is much harder.

Hiring for execution as well as sales ability is an important combination. When the skill of execution is lacking, you’ll often have salespeople that fall into the trap of making big promises and expecting “The Rest Of The Business” to deliver on these promises.

This lack of ownership creates lots of sales business and a poor customer experience which does more damage. The best way to find salespeople who can sell and execute is to understand how they manage their day – in other words, can they demonstrate the skill of productivity.

An easy hack I use is to take a look at their diary for the last few weeks. Just because they are back-to-back with meetings, does not mean they are productive. Most sales meetings are unproductive and don’t lead to any tangible business outcomes.

I look for blank space in diaries, and salespeople that time-box slots in their diary for thinking and empty space. These rare gems do less, have time to see shifts in the market and can see the broader vision of the business.

A gun salesperson can say NO.

Not all business is good business. Some sales opportunities cost more than they bring back to the company in value.

A high-performing salesperson can focus on good business and say no to business too. A weak salesperson says yes to every sales opportunity which ultimately means they’ll drown themselves in unproductive work later on.

No business can be all things, to all customers.

Avoid being deceived by looks.

Any salesperson can buy a nice suit, roll up in a luxury car, drink a cafe latte and talk a big game. Don’t let looks cloud your judgment.

“Looks can be faked; human nature and emotional intelligence cannot be. Phenomenal salespeople understand these two traits like the back of their hand”

Empathy and compassion wins every time in sales.

Understanding how a potential salesperson thinks is about getting inside their head. You can do this through the use of deliberate questions that focus on whether they can be empathetic and compassionate.

Given that salespeople all deal with humans, the ability to be aware of a person’s feelings will be the guiding skill they need to influence an individual to make a decision.

“People buy off feelings and so you want your salespeople to be experts at feeling and understanding human emotion”

All sales solutions solve a problem and with any challenge comes emotion. If you solve a problem as a salesperson but don’t understand the emotion, you’ll probably lose the deal. The feelings and emotions attached to the problem drive the outcome more than the problem itself.

“Again, machines can solve problems; humans solve the emotions and feelings that come bundled with the problem”

– Industry changes quickly so a fixed mindset will ignore these changes
– Salespeople that know everything hold business back
– The problem a salesperson can solve is often missed if they’re not open-minded enough to see it
– The problem can be solved using the wrong solution if the salesperson has a fixed mindset

Experience can sometimes be the worst attribute.

Some of the worst candidates I’ve ever interviewed come with five or more years’ experience. This is because experience can often lead a salesperson to adopt a fixed mindset. Too much experience can cause a candidate to want to do things the way they’ve always been done.

Taking someone who’s got no experience can be a blessing in disguise.

A famous example of this is the founders of Airbnb. They had no experience in the hotel industry which is how they were naive enough and bold enough to use skills from other industries like tech to completely rethink the industry.

Maybe the salespeople you’re hiring with years of experience are the problem.

The answer is there is no perfect sales candidate.

I know what you’re thinking: “Damn it Tim! Why do you keep speaking so much truth?”

Just like there is no easy way to predict which startup will become the next billion-dollar unicorn -there are so many factors to consider and sometimes you’ve got to take a chance and stop thinking you know it all.

None of us have all the answers and your predisposed bias of the past is holding you back from hiring perfectly good candidates.

If you want to increase your productivity and learn some more valuable life hacks, then join my private mailing list on timdenning.net

15 Things To Do When You Hit A Major Career Crisis And Are Forced To Change Career.

When your career is in the dumps, the typical advice is, “Don’t worry and stay positive.”

While this idea looks nice on paper it’s not going to do much when you have bills to pay, mouths to feed and your life’s purpose seems partly lost.

There are common traps that people in this situation fall into. They are:

– Depending on someone else to find them their next career
– Thinking they can just work through it
– Pretending everything is okay when it’s not

Hitting a major career crisis is messed up. Standing still and hoping that everything will be okay will get you nowhere. You’re in control and you’re going to need all the energy you have to get through it.

Right now, my career is down the drain. Everything I have worked for has begun imploding through a series of unrelated events such as restructures, people moving on, lack of understanding, shifts in the market and a change in focus.

These are the 15 things I’ve learned to do in a career crisis:

1. Quit pointing the finger.

Blaming the company, senior leaders, the strategy or any other lame excuse won’t achieve anything. You’re in this career crisis mostly because of your own actions. In my case, I stayed in my current career too long because I was having fun and loved the people I was working with.

I knew it was time to move on six months ago and I ignored the warning signs – that’s a failure on my part right there. I had two choices: blame the company or pull my socks up and move on. I chose the latter. The blame game gets you nowhere. If you hate your current career, then leave.

It’s very tempting to blame the company and point the finger at people you work with who have failed you (in your eyes). The fantasy seems good but the reality is BS.

“Quit pointing the finger and accept what’s happening is your fault. Only you can change your career situation”

2. Get off the Titanic.

“Rose, we have to leave the ship or we will die in the freezing cold water!”

A career crisis that you know is forcing you to move on must be thought about like the Titanic. If your perception of reality is that the ship is sinking and there are leaky holes everywhere, then waiting around is going to force your ass into the freezing cold water.

Changing career takes a long time from the moment you make the decision – which is often delayed because of procrastination. If you know the ship is sinking – like I currently do – then get out of there faster than Jumping Jack Flash.

Grab your torch, grab your belonging’s, kiss your colleagues on the cheek and then run as fast as you can. Hanging around while the ship is sinking will only make your career crisis worse.

While I tell you this phenomenal advice, I didn’t follow it. Thank god I survived the shipwreck and can deliver this advice to you.

3. No one is going to save you – save yourself.

I somehow thought that a magic fairy was going to swoop in and save my ass because you know, I’m Tim Denning after all.

This was wishful thinking that screwed me even more.

No one is saving your ass. That career you’ve worked hard for may be in ruins and only you can fix it. In my situation, I found 90% of those around me only wanted to save themselves. No point dwelling on this fact it’s just the reality of these career situations.

Again, we can be bitter and pissed off or accept that it’s in our human nature to save ourselves first. Waiting around and hoping for a lifeline will push you further into despair.

“The moment you realize that you are responsible for everything that happens in your career is the moment everything changes”

4. The 10% that do want to help.

The good news: there will always be 10% of those around you who do want to help. You must do the following:

– Worship these kind people
– Show your gratitude every time (I literally do it in every email and phone call)
– Follow up with them
– Let them know you will be there for them when they need the same help

I’ve had some ripper colleagues bend over backwards to help me during this difficult time. I even had several customers, partners, accountants, friends and competitors (go figure!) chip in.

It’s this network of people that you should focus on. Every conversation I’ve had and every favor that’s been done has been met with a promise of returning the lifeline that has been given. I’ve told them my gratitude over and over, so they understand how important its been.

I’ve written customized emails and text messages to express my gratitude. NEVER TAKE THE 10% THAT WANT TO HELP YOU FOR GRANTED! These kind people owe you nothing. Remember that.

5. There’s always a turning point.

I experienced this back in 2011 when I left a company I started with my brother. It was a horrible time and I thought that because of all the success I’d had, I was entitled to assistance. I waited around hoping for someone to give me some magic career opportunity.

The phone never rang. I became more and more negative which pushed people further away. Thanks to a Tony Robbins audiotape, late one night I got up off my butt and went for a walk with this new audiotape playing on my 2009 iPod.

That night, I walked around my entire suburb for hours listening to Tony Robbins. I did every exercise he said including the deep breathing and shouting out loud. People in the streets thought I was off my head on drugs.

This one turning point changed everything. I decided that for the next few years I would eat dirt. I’d relearn the skill of sales; I’d become positive again; I’d embrace personal development and I’d change my diet to create energy.

I was so broke at the time that it took me two more years before I could save up enough money to attend a Tony Robbins event which helped me even more.

This career crisis became the foundation of all the success that followed.

6. Back to old success habits.

There were habits that made you successful before that you’ve stopped doing. What were they?

When my recent career crisis hit me like a brick in the face, I went back to my 2011 survival mode – only this time I was prepared.

“People saw me at work with my 2009 iPod which now looks like a relic out of Indiana Jones”

I’ve put the Tony Robbins tapes back in repeat mode. The tapes helped me before and they can help again. The same is true for you. You’ve had success habits before that have got you out of a rough patch. In times of crisis, using them again can be very helpful.

7. In a crisis, there is opportunity.

A career crisis can often be a brilliant opportunity in disguise. We get stuck with our habits and being comfortable. Having to deal with a career crisis can force you to take action and execute.

For example, I wrote down what I wanted going forward. That exercise caused an epiphany: I only want to work four days a week from now on. I decided I’m happy to sacrifice money for time so I can do what I love (writing these words for you).

Changes in company structures and people within a business may force you into a career crisis but it can also be filled with luscious blue sky. People moving around means that you could move up or even to an opportunity that is more aligned with your passion.

Don’t see a crisis as a bad thing; use it to propel your career forward.

This shift in thinking alone can change your work life entirely.

8. A career crisis could make all of your colleague’s negative.

This happened to me. There were lunchtime whinging sessions, random phone calls, emails – you name it. In one of the calls with my colleagues, things turned sour. I immediately hung up from the call. I then got SMS’s saying “Did you drop off the phone?”

My answer was “Yes and I will not be re-joining.” Their response was “We understand.”

I’m not putting up with any excess negativity. The burden of a career crisis is enough to deal with and stacking more negativity will weigh you down. The default human response is negativity so when a career crisis happens (especially one that affects your colleagues), you have to get disciplined.

Set some boundaries and avoid the negativity as much as humanly possible. You’ll piss people off (like I did) but it’s worth every bit of disgust your colleagues may have with you.

9. Options are like a cat with 9 lives.

In a career crisis, the best thing you can have is options. The moment my own career went into meltdown I rang every recruiter I knew. I pre-warned them months in advance. When my fate was set in stone, I sent them my resume and told them I was available.

I also asked them how I could assist them in return and offered my knowledge of social media as a bargaining chip. These recruiters give you options so that when you are faced with difficult decisions, you don’t have to accept a career opportunity that you don’t 100% want.

Having no options will force you to choose the easy way out which will leave you even more frustrated in the long run. A career crisis is a chance to do something new and the more prospects you have, the better it feels to assess each one.

10. Dust off your address book.

Metaphorically of course because none of us carry around little books with names and phone numbers anymore. Start ringing everyone you know and telling them that you are open to new career opportunities. Keep the tone positive and avoid talking down your current company.

Reconnect with literally anyone you know. The next opportunity could come from the strangest of places. One of the career prospects I’m assessing right now that is at the top of my list was referred to me by someone I met once who sent me a text, and who I can’t even remember meeting.

I’m not sure how they got my number or even knew I was looking. Frankly, I don’t even care. Your network can help during these moments of disaster but you have to put in the work and call people. Again, sitting around feeling sorry for yourself will get you nowhere.

11. Avoid coups.

They never work out well. Enough said.

12. Never expect immediate results.

From the moment you decide to change up your career, it’s probably going to take 3-6 months minimum. Patience is key. Nothing in your career that’s worth it will happen overnight.

I know I’m telling you to suck eggs but it’s advice you must hear. I’m sucking eggs right now as I give you the advice haha.

13. Focus on your health.

I spent $2000 on medical stuff last week. People think I’m nuts but during a career crisis, your energy is everything. To be able to put up with so much negativity, you’re going to require excess energy.

Right now, I’m eating all raw foods, skipping fancy dinners that could encourage me to lose track of my diet, and supplementing like my 104-year-old grandma used to.

“Energy during a career crisis is everything”

14. Maintain positive habits or begin them.

– Quit TV as it won’t help you
– Visit an Onsen or have a massage
– Exercise three times a week
– Drink plenty of water
– Sleep a minimum of 8 hours
– Listen to positive podcasts such (Tim Ferriss and Tony Robbins are good)

Your habits during a career crisis will help guide you back to the top again. This list above is what I’m focusing on every day currently and it helps a lot.

15. Don’t give up.

This whole career crisis is going to be filled with failure, rejection and a ton of negativity. Don’t let all this negative energy make you give up.

Your ultimate success in your career will come from this less than ideal situation later on. One day you’ll look back on this career crisis as a blessing in disguise. This crisis will set you on the right path and help you to re-evaluate everything.

Back your own boldness and put your fist in the air.
Charge through the almighty darkness with a smile.
Never. Ever. Give. Up.

If you want to increase your productivity and learn some more valuable life hacks, then join my private mailing list on timdenning.net

Extraordinary businesses are much more about evolution than revolution. Small daily insignificant improvements lead to staggering results over time. Companies such as Google, Uber, Nike and Amazon have not made only one move to amplify their greatness but a series of steps over time. These companies have created un-parallel success due to their belief that success is an inevitable byproduct of doing the little things right. No huge action or silver bullets, instead focusing on achieving legendary business and being better human beings.

The same concept applies, whether it be to companies, or individual performance. Improvements are identified, specific changes are required for the transition and then deliberate immersion until they are automatized.

Important clues hide in the stories of world-renowned creators. Researchers use the term “The Mundanity of Excellence” to describe what makes the best isn’t natural talent or luck but character and the application of a series of simple, specific and learnable methods.

Successful growth companies don’t roll the dice once. When you improve a little each day, eventually big things happen. Invest your energy into seeking the small improvements, small wins, one day at a time and when it happens, it lasts.

Below are 5 principles that when acted upon consistently can lead you to create sustainable results in your business:

1. Played the long game

Media and many within our communities, sensationalize authority figures as overnight success. It rarely exists. Success is captured by thousands of nights in the making, practicing day in and day out and taking countless steps. Bezos attributes Amazon’s success to playing the long game.

When you accept that the journey is not a linear line and you need to work your way there, you take incremental steps to play the long game. Amazon’s first step towards creating the everything store was to focus on selling one thing and one thing only – books. They built one specific product and a strong e-commerce system around it before expanding and diversifying.

2. Thought big, started small

Great companies gather evidence about their capabilities by firing small bullets before they launch a missile. They invest in data to validate where they are heading. They don’t start firing and hope they hit or miss.

When you look back at Google, Larry Page introduced Google Books when he bought a scanner and hooked it up in his office. He began scanning pages, timed it, ran numbers and realized it would be possible to bring book’s online.

Most creators started small. Look at Richard Branson, he started the Virgin Brand with a student magazine. Other examples include Facebook which was started at Harvard and Google started at Stanford with the objective of helping people find information efficiently. Throughout the growth of Google, the company has added more services, yet they continue to focus on one thing only, finding information as quickly as possible.

Amazon dominates different lines of business having little to do with its original undertaking of selling books. Jeff Bezos insists that putting customers first, invent and be patient has been his motto since the beginning.

“Look at things as they can be, not as they are.” – David J. Schwartz

3. Accepted failure as feedback

Failure is inevitable. Humans and business are imperfect. Failure is feedback and opportunity. Fail, but fail early before you invest more than you must or before you compromise your brand. Bezos was interviewed by his brother at Los Angeles’ Summit 2017 where he stated that at the age of 30 he recognized failure was okay but trying was not.

His level of self-awareness allowed him to tap into his courage and take a risk to start an online store. He attributed his success in business due to developing self-reliance and resourcefulness growing up on a ranch. Failure was part of the process, so he mastered that.

4. Found a gap in the market

Uber disrupted the global taxi industry by finding a gap in the market and fulfilled a very real role. Uber removed all the problems associated with taxi services in one fell swoop. They tapped into putting people first by beginning the customer experience through connection of an app to create a personal experience.

They adopted technology at the core and initially focused on raising brand awareness through sponsorship of relevant major events. They harnessed the crowd in the early days with the recommend a friend tactic. They capitalized on social media to the point where the brand became instantly familiar in people’s minds. Step by step, they disrupted the global taxi industry.

“We’ve grown up with internet. We’re able to see things and gaps in markets that others may not be able to.” – Nick D’Aloisio

5. Left a lasting Imprint in people’s minds

“Just do it” is imprinted in the minds of many as is the swoosh logo. In the early days of Nike, putting customers first was paramount. The Nike Moon shoes were a classic example of not only building great products but also highlighting the health benefits of wearing the jogging shoe. The audience wasn’t looking for better running shoes but a better way to get in shape.

Like the other companies identified, Nike has taken small steps over time to significantly impact millions of people. Their brand stands alone, yet they have adapted through upgraded designs, embraced new technologies moving from print to social media platforms and adapted to the needs of their audience.

They continue to hold on to their customer-centric messaging by staying true to their sense of purpose, emphasizing benefits of their products and reinforcing the message that they help their clients be better at what they love to do.

None of these companies sold products, they spread ideas and delivered the benefits that came with it. Over time, they built trust with customers by adding immense value. A style that will never out date.

Which one of these companies is your favorite one and why? Let us know in the comments below!

Time to Get Mushy: Why Emotions Will Help You Succeed at Work

We have always believed that we need to be smart, well-organized, hard-working and tough negotiators to be successful at work. However, has anyone told you to rely on your emotions for success? The answer is probably not since most people tend to believe emotions only get in the way.

However, it isscientifically proven today that the intelligence is only one puzzle piece in the picture of success: your intelligence and hard-working ethics will earn you a promotion at work or a salary increase only when combined with your high integrity, self-esteem, self-awareness, empathy, self-regulation and great social skills, or to sum up, emotional intelligence.

Emotional intelligence (EQ) is the ability to identify and effectively manage your own and other people’s emotions. Many academic studies over the past decades demonstrated the power of emotional intelligence, and it is now considered the core ingredient of personal and professional success.

EQ includes our self-awareness (knowing our own feelings), self-management (controlling our feelings), motivation, empathy (the skill of understanding other people’s emotions and reacting to them appropriately) and our social skills (negotiating the needs of others with your own and applying empathy).

These skills empower us to accurately assess our emotional triggers and abilities, control our emotional reactions, constructively resolve conflicts, set achievable goals and effectively manage relationships with other people. It’s not your IQ, but your EQ that will make your career skyrocket and your salary reach figures you only dreamt about. But how?

Emotional Fitness and Work Success

According to a research by the Carnegie Institute of Technology, we owe some 85% of our financial success to our people skills such as our ability to communicate, negotiate and act as leaders. In other words, they found that our emotional intelligence skills are highly related to our financial success.

The ability to stay calm and in control of your emotions in challenging situations is greatly valued in everyday life and in business as well. Are you able to keep your emotions under control when things don’t go your way? Can you take responsibility for your actions and predict other people’s actions most of the time? Can you apologize directly when you hurt someone’s feelings, no matter how uncomfortable you might feel? If your answer to these questions is yes, then you may be on a good road to become an exceptional leader.

How to Boost Your Emotional Fitness

Emotional fitness is a key to your career success. Being emotionally fit means that you are able to focus on constructive and creative tasks. It also represents the ability to accept negative feelings and stay in control of them. However, the same way we need regular exercise to stay physically fit, we need a certain practice to boost our emotional intelligence as well.

Use the 4 tips below to improve your EQ and keep emotionally fit:

1. Be Giving

Our personality and thereby our emotional intelligence involves two parts: identity (how we see ourselves) and reputation (how other people see us). Rewarding people tends to be seen as friendly, trusting and cooperative. Others also perceive them as unselfish, proactive and willing to share their knowledge and resources. Whether it is business or personal relationships, everyone likes to be around people who are supportive, eager to help, easy to get along with and can be trusted.

Nobel Prize winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman found that people would rather do business with a person they like and trust than someone they don’t, even though the other person is offering a better product and a lower price.

Both, seeing yourself and being seen as a rewarding, valuable person by others has a power to boost your confidence, improve your communication and negotiation skills and help you climb the corporate ladder successfully.

“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

2. Visualization

A great way to get promoted at work is to show you do not get upset easily and prove you can stay composed when not everything goes according to plan. Try to come up with different imaginary scenarios requiring you to use your EQ skills and work out the possible solutions to them.

For instance, imagine that you are a company manager that needs to terminate a certain number of employees. Stay focused on your emotions and try to apply the best emotional fitness skills to solve this unpleasant situation. How do you react?

Practicing your EQ skills this way will increase your self-esteem, help you gain control over your emotions and boost your social skills. There is even a game where you can learn and practice your people skills.

3. Empathy

Practice your empathy whenever you get a chance. Listen to people actively, putting prejudices and interpretations aside. Try to take up a contrary position in everyday communication especially when dealing with conflicts.

For example, if you think that your teammate is being unreasonable, try defending their position in your head. How do things look from their perspective?Understanding how other people feel is key to having empathy and a sure road to sustainable success.

“Empathy is seeing with the eyes of another, listening with the ears of another and feeling with the heart of another.” – Alfred Adler

4. Remember to Be Grateful

If you ask emotionally fit people about the things they are grateful for, they will undoubtedly be able to come up with a long list. Practice a gratitude exercise every morning. After you get up, write down a list of things you are grateful for. This will keep you positive and motivated throughout the day.

You could also count your blessings before you go to sleep. Remember your subconscious mind believes whatever you tell it, so imprinting the positive thoughts into your subconscious is a great way to boost your confidence, self-awareness, motivation and happiness. Our brain cannot store all the information we receive, butyou can be in control of what your brain stores. Keep that in mind.

The experience and studies proved that individuals with highly developed emotional intelligence tend to be more successful in all areas of life, personal and business-wise. Nurturing your emotional fitness, you will have the power to accomplish your goals, improve your career and build up your relationships. In short, this will help you to lead a happy and successful life.

How do you use your emotional intelligence on a daily basis? Share with us some of your tips!